Age of Oak Trees

[ncrawshaw]

Our woods are a mixture of chestnut coppice with a bit of larch plantation, intermingled with quite latge oak trees. it is ancient woodland and the tithe map shows that it was coppiced in the 1840s. The current coppice crop is quite mature - some of what we have cut is over 20 years old but I am interested how old the oak trees are. Obviously, I could cut them down and count the rings but that would be a bit drastic!! Is there a rule of thumb method based on their circumference?

[tracy]

Hi Ncrawshaw

I googled it and got a few hits. Try

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_estimate_the_age_of_an_oak_tree

or

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/fcin12.pdf/$FILE/fcin12.pdf

(much more detail)

The woodland trust one looks the most straight forward

http://wbrc.org.uk/atp/Estimating%20Age%20of%20Oaks%20-%20Woodland%20Trust.pdf

Let us know what you find out!

[ncrawshaw]

Thanks Tracy. The Woodland Trust method was certainly more straightforward. We averaged out the circumference of several similar trees and it would indicate that the oaks are around70-80 years old. However, as they are growing within woodland as opposed to out in the open, it is possible that they are older as their trunks are taller and narrower than similar aged individual trees.

[tracy]

Yes, that is true. Are all your trees the same age? You might want to think about how to encourage new oak trees to grow! Difficult, as they need lots of sun and protection from being eaten!

[ncrawshaw]

Yes, I would say that all the oaks are the same age. Also, having examined other maps of the woodland since 1840, an age of 70 -80 years seems realistic. We do have quite a lot of open space in the woods which would be suitable to encourage new oaks to grow - I'll have to put it on my "to do list"!!

[tracy]

Great! As soon as we made a clearing near some oak (which also involved thinning some) we have got loads of natural regeneration, including about 30 oak. Now the job of protecting them! All the best with yours